IncuBUST

Blood

"Do you wanna go back out?" Barapha asked once he had finished his hot cocoa and helped a few people to find some better fitting skates. I looked up from my besocked foot which I was massaging the tension out of and said, "Sure."

He raised an eyebrow at me and asked, "Are you certain?" I grabbed my skates from underneath my chair and replied, "Yeah." I hesitated with a skate halfway on my right foot and glanced at him with my lips pursed.

"Can... can you tie them like you did before?" He smiled and knelt down before me.

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"Are you sure you want to leave?" Barapha asked backing me up against the drivers' side door of my car. "My shift ends in an hour." He closed the space between us and hooked his fingers through the belt loops on my skinny jeans.

"I could take you out to dinner," he said gazing softly into my eyes.

"Neither of us need to eat real food," I replied pressing my hands against his torso feeling his skin cold as ice beneath the fabric of his shirt. He smirked and bent down to my height saying, "Dessert then. Everyone knows ice cream isn't real food." I grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him even closer whispering, "I think I'd prefer something a little colder."

"Mmm, Chase, I swear I have never met anyone who burns as hot as you," Barapha murmured. Our lips had just barely touched when something smacked against the windshield spattering deep red paint across my face and neck.

My heart jumped into my throat at the loud noise, and I touched the side of my face. My fingers came away stained red. Not paint...blood. I turned to look in the direction from which the object came and saw three teenage boys on bicycles near the entrance of the Iceplex parking lot.

"Murderer!" one shouted while the others made rude gestures. Then he pitched something across the parking lot. It was a balloon and it hit me square in the chest, bursting on impact and soaking my sweater with animal blood. I began to hyperventilate. The boys screamed a few more profanities then made for the exit.

The ground beneath my feet started to tremor and the temperature dropped at least thirty degrees. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Barapha raise his arm. He could flash freeze a warm body from fifty yards. I had seen it back when he was dating Sissy.

I reached out and caught his wrist in my hand saying, "Y-y-you've already met your allowance for the month." It was the first thing to pop into my head, but I had no idea if it was true. He looked back at me and snapped, "Self-defense!" He wrenched his arm out of my grasp and a harsh wind sprung up causing goosebumps to erupt all over my body.

The boys were nearly out of sight when they stopped and looked back at us, eyes wide with terror. They could feel it coming...Death. I grabbed Barapha's hand and yanked it down pumping him full of heat and crying, "You can't!" He turned to look at me and upon seeing my face the fury drained from his eyes. There were tears streaming down my cheeks and it wasn't the cold that had me shivering.

"Shit," he mumbled. The wind died down, the temperature rose, and the ground ceased to tremble. He set his hand on my shoulder and steered me back towards the Iceplex saying, "There are showers in the locker rooms that the local hockey team uses. Let's get you cleaned up."

He brought me in through the back so none of the people still inside would see me covered in blood and led me into the locker room.

"You should've let me kill those little bastards," Barapha muttered helping me remove my sweater. I cringed at the feeling of blood-soaked fabric sticking to my chest.

"You would have gotten in trouble," I replied kicking off my shoes and unbuttoning my pants with trembling fingers.

"I don't care!" he exclaimed, "Look what they did to you!" I peeled off my socks and struggled out of the stupid skinny jeans mumbling, "I'm fine." He shook his head and touched my face saying, "If you won't let me go after those asshats, you should at least report it. They threw blood-filled balloons at you. Pretty sure that's assault."

I turned away from him and switched on the shower asking, "Report it to who? The police? What would they do? Find them and give them a slap on the wrist, a stern warning? They're...they're just kids after all."

"Just human, you mean," Barapha said, and I stared at him for a long moment before reaching up to touch his long, white ponytail.

"Looks like they got you too," I said running my fingers through his blood-stained hair. He looked down at the bright red stains and then back at me saying, "I guess I'd better join you then." I smiled sadly before removing his clothes and pulling him into the shower.